


Flatline

by WORLDLWT



Category: Larry Stylinson - Fandom, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Dead Louis, Eyes, Heart, Heart-to-Heart, M/M, Sick Harry, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 15:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5791399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WORLDLWT/pseuds/WORLDLWT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twitter - @WORLDLWT: AU where Louis dies and his heart and one of his eyes is transplanted into a boy named Harry Styles. Louis’ mom gets to listen to the heart and look into her sons eyes as she tells Harry all about a boy named Louis Tomlinson</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flatline

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter - @WORLDLWT

It was just coincidence that Louis Tomlinson got into a deadly car crash the night Harry Styles was admitted into the hospital, it was fate that Harry's heart started failing as Louis’ life slipped quickly away from him. It was nothing short of destiny that their blood types matched and Louis just so happened to be an organ donor. 

***********

Louis’ last thoughts were of nothing but how short his life was about to be cut, he was only 20, a medical intern at the same hospital he was being rushed into. He knew the drill. He knew what they were going to say before they said it.

“Hi Louis my name is Owen, do you know where you are?”

Louis simply nodded his head, he knew what happened during car accidents he was going to be a nurse, he was going to save people. He was going to be the Owen’s of the world.

“You're at Trinity Hospital.” 

He heard him but he didn't necessarily comprehend anything. He felt overall dizzy, wanting the spinning to stop and the pain to subside. The nurses murmured reassuring words of wisdom and love to him as they worked around his limp body.

“Is my sister okay.”

Owns ran his fingers through his blood stained hair as he smiled softly down at Louis. His eye bruising and his lip bleeding causes red to pool under his head.

“She's alive and resting, she'll be fine. You my friend are a hero.”

That's all he heard before the world of colors and love fell black before his guarded eyes. All his hopes and dreams escaping from his being as he slipped further and further away from reality and into the darkness that seemed to be surrounding him. The last word he heard, the last thing he would even comprehend and take to heart was someone claiming him to be a hero.

It wasn't scary or uncomfortable. It was like a nice warm hug, like a mother's arms when they are wrapped tightly around you after a long trip home. He welcome it with open arms and it cradled him in his final moments, images of his sister and his mother, family dinners and parties he attended. Smiling faces and booming laughter, music and color and final light, bright lights of all colors like a final going away party before he was met with the unknown. All of his happy memories flooded back to him like a drug slipping into his veins. 

He wanted to save people, and even in his dying moment that's exactly what he did.

********

Harry woke up after surgery with a new feeling of gratefulness in his heart and mind. He let his fingers roam his cold chest. He let his head lean back as he smiled and chuckled at the beating heart inside him. Someone else's beating heart was inside him. He could've been rolling into the hospital at the same time as this person, maybe they rolled right past each other, both dying quickly. Some weird twist of fate that brought the dying person to him, his own little savior, his guardian angel. He wasn't incredibly religious or superstitious but when you're dying and there just so happens to be the perfect match for you in the very hospital you were dragged to, faith starts to becoming someone you're very familiar with.

For a moment he felt almost guilty. He had someone else's life inside of him, a heart that beated for different reasons than his own. It was also incredibly interesting, he had another person's whole being inside of him. Everytime he touched his fingers to his chest and felt that heart beating it was a reminder of someone who once was, someone who saved a life. Someone who saved his life.

“Harry?”

He rolled his sore head to look towards the soothing voice of his mother. She smiled widely at him as a tear escaped her eye. She quickly brushed it away and tried to smile at him again.

“Mom, no crying look at me I'm alive. Happy tears.”

She nodded and placed her hand on top of his own, she thumbed his open palm, massaging the sore skin. He felt like he was out for days, weeks even. Heart transplant, that's the surgery he knew he was going to have to get the minute he was calling for an ambulance.

“What do you think about blue eyes?”

Harry closed his own eyes, picturing all the celebrities, friends and family members he had met or admired with blue, vibrant eyes. Eyes that sparkled in the sun and changed colors due to the surroundings and clothing choices.

“They're naturally beautiful, why do you ask?”

He just noticed the mirror facing downwards in her lap. Her free hand clasping around the edge, her knuckles whiter than the border itself. For a moment he was allowed to be confused as his mother started talking again. Even her soft voice sounding like a rock band in his ear.

“What I show you might come as a surprise to you. Just remember the surgery was worth it. I promise.”

Harry's mind raced, images of himself with scars on his face, a bloody nose, bulging red rimmed eyes all ran through his mind. Nothing could have prepared him for the moment when he saw his reflection for the first time.

He stared at himself, well half of himself at least. The blue eye looked like an ocean compared to the green forest of his other. Together they made their own little adventure. The same parts of his eye that held hidden jungles of emotions and trees full of leaves to hide things from other people now complemented the ocean blue beside it. Blue, he felt like he was looking at the beach not his own eye. Well not his eye but the eye in his skull. It looked cool and refreshing and he wanted nothing more than to admire it for hours. He reached slowly up to his face, dragging IV’s along with him. He brushed over his lips, feeling them and then his nose. He covered the blue eye, his green blinking wildly. He moved his hand to the right of his face and covered his green eye, leaving the blue one to move towards the mirror.

“This is weird.”

His mother ran her long manicured fingers through his over grown hair. She kissed his temple easily, Harry watched in the mirror silently.

“Good weird or bad weird.”

Harry examined his face once again moving his head back and forth, searching for angles where he could see both blue and green in the same light.

“It's a beautiful eye, whose was it?”

He put the mirror down as his mother leaned back in her chair, getting comfortable again.

“The same boy who gave you that heart. His name was Louis I believe.”

“Louis what?”

His mother shrugged as a doctor walked in with a woman beside him, short with blue eyes to match one of his own.

“Mr.Styles this is Johanna Tomlinson, Louis Tomlinson's mother.”

Harry didn't know what to do, should he smile, should he say he was sorry. He froze and just looked at her and that alone was enough to send her into a small fit of tears. He looked down as she approached him, wiping away the excess water droplets.

“Oh honey, I'm sorry to be like this it’s just, you know I look at you and I see my baby boy.”

His mother stood up and hugged the women as the doctor smiled down at him putting his stethoscope in his ears and placing the cold metal on Harry's burning chest.

He hummed at the steady rhythm and smiled down at Harry as his mother held the women.

“You don't mind if we let her listen, if you would rather do it some other time then of course that is fine.”

Harry thought about it for a second, contemplating if he wanted to watch this women cry all over his weak body or not. He simply attempted a shrug.

“It's fine, of course let her listen to her son's heart.”

************

Every Friday after school Jay comes over, stethoscope hidden in her purse. Already teary eyed as Harry opened the door for her with a full blown toothy smile. One eye green, one eye blue. The sense of Louis lingering around him.   
She can’t help but hug the boy and stroke his hair, remembering her own son not much older than the boy in her arms. Harry would simply let her hug him knowing how hard this must be for her. He would simply guide her to the couch.

Anne would be sitting in the living room waiting for them already, tea all set out on the table and tissue boxes in each corner of their plush couch.

 

Anne and Jay would make small talk and drink their tea as Harry sat and watched, both eyes fixated on the clock or the swirls in the wallpaper until it was time. 

Harry simply would unbutton his shirt halfway and Jay would pull out her stethoscope shaking as she put it inside her ears like a teenager would while crying in their room.

 

Anne would take her hand as they placed the cold metal on Harry's chest. Harry would start breathing deeply for a second, his heart or well Louis’ heart would speed up and slow down once his chest warmed the metal. 

 

There would be silence in that living room. A silence that felt like a decade the only noise being in Jay’s ears. The heartbeat of her son. Her baby who she would never hold again. Her eyes would meet Harry's focusing on the way the blue one dilated in the light and she would see her son and she would break down right there in a living room that wasn’t even hers.

 

Harry would grab her hand lightly replacing the cold metal with her warm hand and he would simply smile at her. The warmest smile, one that crinkled his eyes.

 

“He’s not gone, he’ll never be gone. He’s right here with me. I promise you I’ll take very good care of him.”

 

Even Anne would be wiping her own tears away frantically trying to be a better host and a bigger person for the weeping woman beside her. Jay would wipe away her own tears and take out the earbuds as Harry smiled one last time and would say,

 

“Tell me about Louis Tomlinson.”

That's how it started every single time and every time Jay spoke about him the more Harry desired to know this long gone boy.

“How old was he?”

Jay twirled the end of her spoon in her tea, the same dreary look in her eyes that Harry was accustomed to.”

“He was 20 years old when he died. He died without me there.”

She put her head in her hands obvious regret, one final word or something that she wanted to give to her son in his final moments of life and she just couldn't get to the hospital fast enough.

“When I walked in, I knew he was dead. The way the nurse looked at me, with those eyes. Eyes full of sadness with a touch of comfort. She let me cry on her shoulder.”

She grabbed a tissue from the box closest to her and dabbed at her eyes. She patted Harry's knee for support and Harry wrapped both of his hand around her small one.

“He turned the car so he got hit the hardest. His sister lives with the guilt everyday. No matter how many times we tell her it's not her fault he's dead, it was that animal driving on the wrong side of the road.”

Harry didn't know these parts of the story. He was interested and he leaned toward her to hear better.

“He was a hero. He went out with pride. He saved her life, by sacrificing his own that's a noble man.”

She hiccuped slightly through her tears. Her eyes matched the red on her scarf. 

“That's all he ever wanted to do, save lives that is. He wanted to be a nurse.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, the pieces of this mysterious savior coming together slowly.

“He did. He saved your daughters and he saved mine. He didn't die in vain or its regret he died with pride and dignity and he achieved what he wanted without even realizing it. He's my savior, he's your daughters savior. I wish I knew him, he sounds wonderful.”

“You're a sweet boy, he needed someone like you in his life growing up.”

“How so?”

Harry leaned back, bringing his feet to his chest and letting one hand fall over his heart. He liked to feel it beat as much as Jay liked to listen. Sometimes at night when he couldn't sleep he would press down and let the rhythm soothe him into his dreams.

“He was bullied quite often, all the way until high school. The gay boy who wants to be a nurse didn't really help his “image”.”

Harry nodded, thinking about what it would be like if he grew up with Louis. A boy he's never even seen before.

“Do you by any chance. Do you.”

He was stumbling on his words, he didn't know why he felt weird or awkward asking but Jay's, sweet face pulled it out of him.

“Do you have a picture of him?”

Her eyes shot up quickly as she rummaged around in her purse. She pulled out her phone and opened it, Harry watched her quickly open her camera roll and go to an album labelled Louis.

She handed him the phone and Harry looked through it smiling. He was gorgeous, a perfect mixture of edges and beauty, his skin looked soft and warm and it matches his hair, fluffy and fragile but his face was angular and cut and for some reason the mixture worked and it worked really well.

“He's, breathtaking for a lack of a more powerful word.”

Jay smiled proudly as Harry handed back her phone and she let it sit on her lap. Her purse now beside her.

“Though bullied, he loved to make people happy.”

To Harry, Louis sounded like a god like figure, someone who did no wrong and walked among the mortals for a short period of one because he was too pure for our world.

“Every time someone was mean to him, he came home and he would do someone for me or his sister or he would go out and buy someone ice cream. He paid for an old mans gas once and the man came knocking at out door the next day with the biggest smile on his face.”

Harry was sure his previous theories of Louis being an angel were one hundred and fifty percent true after hearing all these tales.

“He sounds like an angel. An absolute angel.”

She smiled playing with her scarf as she stared off out the window, watching the trees move in slow motion outside.

“I like to think he was taken to early but when is it really ever our time to go.”

Harry thought about it for a moment, no one knew when death was going to welcome you into its open arms. The only people who knew what that felt like we're dead and gone and now we just played the waiting game with life.

“Not to get religious on you but I think people are put on this planet by whomever you believe in and their lives are lived in theory that they will love and give, like Louis and the saying only the good die young stands the test of time because it's true. We have your beautiful son inside and out a picture of purity. The only reason I could believe for his removal from this earth was someone up there needed him, needed his purity and loyalty. Maybe I'm crazy or way too hopeful but maybe he has white wings now and is flying around as a guardian angel, looking over your home and your life.”

“And yours, he's looking over you as well.”

Harry smiled and placed his hands on her smaller ones.

“And mine. Our guardian angel.”

She nodded along to his words.

“Do you think he was in pain?”

Harry stood up and moved himself beside Jay, he pulled her closer and hugged her tightly.

“Nope, it probably felt like a warm hug, a welcome home hug. He's out there somewhere and he's right here too.”

Harry moved her hand so it was situated over his heart and so she could look him in the eye.

“He's right here, spiritually, mentally and almost physically. As long as this heart is beating and this eye is here, as long as I'm alive and as long as my eyes are open, Louis Tomlinson is here, he's always going to be right here, he's just one call away and a thirty minute drive.” 

Him and Jay would sit like that for a while, both of their minds somewhere else. Harry's eyes wandering around the room, sometimes she would say something small or pat his knee. It was always the same. 

He heard about the time Louis fell off his bike and scraped both of his knees so badly they had to rush him to the hospital. She laughed at the pictures of him pouting with bandaged knees.

It wasn't until a month or so later that she pulled out a video. Her tears were less frequent and her smile grew and grew as she told Harry all about her baby boy.

She clicked play on the single video and Harry remembered vividly just how beautiful his voice was, so raw and pure and full of emotions. It danced through the air like ballerinas in a professional Broadway production.

The night she told him that Louis’ favorite movie was Grease, he sat in his room and watched it for what felt like the billionth time and he pictures Louis laughing and singing along. When he would chuckle he would place his hand over his heart and feel it beating extra quickly, as if Louis was getting to do all of his favorite things one last time.

The worst part was saying goodbye at the door. Jay always cradled his face, letting her hand brush over his cheek. He smiled at her the blue eye focusing clearly on her stressed out face.

“You're a wonderful boy Harry Styles.”

He wouldn't say much to that, she said it every time he waited for a kiss on the cheek before he watched her walk slowly down the steps and into her car. He would wave as she drove away. His body freezing with the bitter chill of the day, almost hypnotized as her cat become a small dog in the distance. His mother would be beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder and guiding him away from the door and to the stair case.

“Harry go on up and get some sleep.”

She kissed his cheek and said goodnight her fingers stroked his cheek for a moment too long, he being too far off in his own thought would just simply nod, walking up the stairs aimlessly.

He always turned in the middle of the staircase, both of his eyes casting down on the living room, his mind picturing Louis the best he could, lounging around, his feet on the coffee table, his hands behind his head as he rested back and watched some television.

His mother just watched him, waiting for him to finish what she thought he truly needed to do. It wasn't fun and games for him either. He had to take various medications so Louis’ heart wouldn't be rejected. The eye looked out of place and the surgery was so long that at night he had to wear a medicated eyepatch to keep it clean and safe.

He didn't lose anyone but he felt like he did. He felt like he lost someone he never knew and that was killing him inside. He opened the door to his room and peeled back the sheets, sliding himself between them and the mattress. 

He looked up to his ceiling, white and plain, it soothed him, it relaxed him, the simplicity of it, the way it was nothing and everything all at once.

He let his palm press firmly over his beating heart. He was still unsure if he could call it his heart. Yes, it was in his body. Yes, it was keeping him alive but did it belong to him? At the end of the could he confidently say that this was his heart now, it's prior owner going completely under the radar.

He couldn't bring himself to let Louis die, every time he looked in the mirror so did Louis. Every time his heart slowed or quickened so did Louis’. Harry sighed turning on his side on his bed, looking over pictures hanging on his wall. All of his memories staring back at him in the dark room, almost looking manipulated.

Did Louis have friends, lots of them probably, he seemed like someone Harry would’ve adored if he was given such an opportunity. He let his eyes close and he let the voice of Louis, the one he heard only a few times take over. At first he thought it was weird, being oddly obsessed with the boy who was long gone. His mother soothed his, assuring it was part of the transplant process. She prided herself on her research saying that of course Harry would be obsessed with him, he lost his life but saved Harry's own, who wouldn't worship that. 

As h laid in his bed, his hair falling a bit in front of his face he wished he could've wrapped his arms around Louis before the whole thing happened and just thank him, thank him for everything he would do for him.

He placed his hand over his heart and let out a yawn as his eyes burned with a day's worth of sleepiness. The rhythm was still perfect underneath his fingertips and that made him smile as he started dozing off into sleep.

“Goodnight Louis Tomlinson.”

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter - @WORLDLWT


End file.
